Free, Family Fun at DuPage Engineers Week Expo - Saturday, Feb 23
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) will host the 29th Annual DuPage Area Engineers Week this February at the Rice Campus in Wheaton. Part of 2013 National Engineers Week, the DuPage area activities will include the Engineers Week Expo from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 23.
Committed to making math, science, and engineering fun and accessible to learners of all ages, this year's Engineers Week theme is “Engineering a Gateway to Tomorrow's Technology.”
Engineers Week provides children and adults with the opportunity to experience a series of interactive displays and presentations that demonstrate the fundamentals of math and science. Volunteers from engineering societies, education, business, and government donate their time each year to promote an active interest in learning and to show the intriguing and applicable results of numerous engineering principles. The Engineers Week Expo includes model airplanes and a wind tunnel exhibit, robots, bicycle power, and hands-on activities with ZOOM, Design Squad, SCARCE, and the DuPage Children's Museum.
Activities include, Working Bikes, which allows attendees to see how much energy they can generate by pedaling a bicycle. “Buildings to Shake-Rattle and Roll!” exhibit and presentation allows participants to build and test their own building designs under simulated earthquake conditions. The popular cryogenics display includes a few controlled explosions and items are dropped into a liquid that can freeze an object within seconds. Children will also enjoy watching their hair stand straight up thanks to the forces of static electricity, load testing of balsa wood bridges that can hold up to 400 pounds of force, and lifting their parents thanks to levers and pulleys. IIT students will include a set of hands-on demonstrations specifically designed to engage K-12 students in engineering.
New this year, Illinois Masons will offer ILCHIP, a free child identification program that includes a digital video recording, fingerprints and a DNA sample of the children. Parents will take the ILCHIP records with them. Chicagoland Robotics will be having their Spring Competition and is encouraging people to bring their own robots to demonstrate.
All DuPage Area Engineers Week events are free and open to the public. IIT's Rice Campus is located at 201 East Loop Road, Wheaton, Illinois. For more information on DuPage Engineers Week, please visit www.dupageeweek.iit.edu, or contact Maria Kozi-O'Donnell at 630-682-6043 or mkoziodo@iit.edu.